Time to clear customs

[jimbo1972]

Newby here. first South African hunt and will be bringing two rifles. Africa Sky guest in Johannesburg will be handing firearm paperwork. How much time should I mentally plan to clear customs? After a 15+ hour flight just trying to mentally prepare. If it affects anything will be middle of July.

 

[Rare Breed]

Newby here. first South African hunt and will be bringing two rifles. Africa Sky guest in Johannesburg will be handing firearm paperwork. How much time should I mentally plan to clear customs? After a 15+ hour flight just trying to mentally prepare. If it affects anything will be middle of July.

i use rifle permits for license and VIP great. 20 minutes max to get my gun at police station and clear customs. best $300 i spend to get no hassle

 

[Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS]

Newby here. first South African hunt and will be bringing two rifles. Africa Sky guest in Johannesburg will be handing firearm paperwork. How much time should I mentally plan to clear customs? After a 15+ hour flight just trying to mentally prepare. If it affects anything will be middle of July.

If you clearing the guns yourself with SAP(south african police)then around 30-40mins max
Make sure u have all paperwork in order and ready and forms filled out

 

[Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS]

Sorry i see africa sky doing paperwork. Then around 10-15 mins no problem
Passport control depends on amount of flights landing at same time then you get your luggage and come out to arrivals hall
SAP for weapons is handled once you are out and have met africa sky rep. Then you go to sap and sort weapons, the weapons go straight to the sap office

 

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

If we arr traveling thru Joburg with a firearm we usually use the “Afton House”.
Altough I allow. In my mind 1hour from plane to out the door we usually shave a few minutes off of the hour.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

+1 to what @Rare Breed said. Rifle Permits freaking rocks. No fuss, no hassle.

 

[cpr0312]

Welcome aboard!

 

[Hogpatrol]

Meet & greet service can make a HUGE difference going through RSA customs. Global Entry on the way back helps but it depends on your port of entry.

 

[randallhebert]

Welcome aboard!

Rifle permit and meet and greet. Walks you to customs and you go ahead of everyone else, then they bring you and turn you over to Henry. Worth it.

 

[Hyde Hunter]

Africa Sky is great, both my trips over the last 2 years had the meet and greet Africa Sky and Mr X and we waited in the customs line both times and we never by passed anyone in line

 

[Edster]

Used Africa Sky in 2021, they did permits plus meet and greet. Keep in mind flight landed 4am local time. We were thru customs and SAP and on the road to camp by 4:30 - 4:45. Will be using Africa sky again in April.

 

[Hyde Hunter]

yea we arrived around 730pm lot of people clearing customs but SAPS not bad

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

If using a service, clearing the guns is actually fairly quick. The immigration line can be painfully slow. Some of the rifle clearing services offer VIP service for an extra fee and expedite you through the line.

 

[Cam300]

Get the meet and greet. It turned a 2 hour wait into a 5 minute wait. They whisk you through the diplomat line. Well worth the money, IMO.

 

[Firebird]

I agree Meet and Greet. There is something comforting when getting off the plane after that loooong flight and seeing a smiling human holding a sign with your name on it. Follow that guy through the diplomat line while feeling sad for all the people waiting in the cattle chute. Escorts you to baggage and makes sure your bag arrives. Then hands you off to the gun permit guy to whisk you through gun clearance. It is worth the money. At least your first time

 

[USN]

Concur meet and greet, about 30-45 on my two trips. Enjoy your hunt.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

To be safe, budget an hour or two from deplaning and you’ll be fine. If you’re working with Africa Sky or Afton they’ll have people there to assist you, especially if you’re going back to the guest house before meeting your outfitter.

I’ve done it myself a few times and done the meet & greet a few times. Longest time I had was meet & greet in early 2021, which took almost 2 hours from deplaning and we didn’t get the usual treatment of going through the diplomat line. Not sure if Covid or something impacted that.

Shortest time I had was in 2022 doing gun paperwork and no meet and greet all on my own. I was through in 15-20 minutes of deplaning passing people in SAP who did the meet & greet including several people who were on an earlier flight experiencing issues. I was genuinely shocked and had actually planned to be there longer which meant I had to wait a bit before leaving the airport in my transportation. The other trips were all +/- an hour from deplaning, including one where there was an error on their end of the paperwork pre-approval.

Another thing I will say is all of the plane arrival times and airlines have been different, as well as the date. July is peak time so your wait might be a little longer compared to early or late season.